One. Two. Three.

Three times already Taeyeon woke up tonight because of the scream of her mother.

“Mom, it’s alright mom, I’m here,” she tried to calm her shaken mother down.

“I see your dad. He’s leaving me. He’s running away,” her mother cried out. It left scars on Taeyeon’s heart. Her mother must’ve dreamt about losing his father again. And she is so upset to see her mother in pain.

“He’s always with us mom. He’s here mom, he’s inside this house,” she tried again. Her mother struggled and tried to escape from her embrace, screaming and saying that she needs to go, she needs to find his dad.

“I have to go,”

“Mom, don’t. Just rest mom, let’s go to sleep,”

“He’s out there, Taeyeon. He wants to leave us,”

“MOM HE LEFT ALREADY,” that’s it, Taeyeon can’t hold it anymore. Her mother stopped crying, but instead, she is staring at Taeyeon with no emotion. Taeyeon regrets it in instant; she should’ve been even more patient than before. She shouldn’t have yelled like that.

“What did you say?” she heard her mom asking. Her voice is so small and she noticed her lips trembling.

“I—“

“THIS IS BECAUSE OF YOU! IF ONLY YOU CAME HOME FASTER! IF ONLY—“ and Taeyeon stopped her mother by hugging her.

“I’m sorry mom, I’m sorry,” tears can’t stop flowing from Taeyeon’s eyes.

“Just hate me mom. Blame me whatever you want. But please, you need to rest. It’s already three in the morning,” she said as she hugged her mother. She didn’t budge. Taeyeon stared at her, only to found a blank gaze from her mother’s eyes.

“Let’s get back to sleep,” she said as she put down her mother back to her bed. She wrapped her in a blanket and kissed her cheek.

“Good night mom. I love you,” she said before leaving the room. With that, tears fell down on her mother’s face while Taeyeon fell on the floor, legs weak from the tiredness and sadness.

“Yah, do you know where Taeyeon unnie is?” Yonna asked the munching Sehun on his right side.

“No, I’m not. I haven’t seen her too. I thought you guys had a morning class today?” now he asked Baekhyun who’s joining their table for lunch.

“We had. And she didn’t come. I don’t know too,” he answered. Baekhyun is confused. She looked well yesterday, nothing was wrong with them too. Why is she skipping class? He thought that Taeyeon never want to ditch class since she worked very hard to be in this university.

“Something is seriously going wrong. She is not the type to skip class, even when she’s sick,” said Yoona again, palms sweating while eyes busy looking around.

“Should we call that coffee shop's manager? Maybe she knows something?” suggested Sehun.

“I doubt it. She looks fine yesterday and nothing is wrong with her work,” said Baekhyun.

“How do you know?” Kai is curious.

“I went there last night,”

“Whoa? Seriously? What is it between you two?” he continued.

“We had a project together, remember? And she needed to work, that’s why we went there. So that she can still do her job and paper at the same time,” he explained, trying to pushed away Kai’s thought.

“Reasonable enough,” this time is Sehun.

“Shut up you,”

“OH! TAEYEON UNNIE!”

Yoona’s call make everyone on the table turn their head on the cafeteria entrance. There they saw the lifeless Taeyeon, walking like she has no energy to do so. Baekhyun noticed the pale complexion on her face and her crumpled shirt.

“Oh… She looks—“

“Mess,” Sehun cut Yoona off. He stands up immediately and grabbed her hand, guiding her to sit with them.

“Spill it. What happened?” he looks worried. Sehun can be reliable sometimes, like a brother, that’s what Baekhyun saw.

“Unnie? What happened? I’m so worried for you… Why are you so pale?” Yoona changed her seat to be next to Taeyeon as she rubbed her hand on her palm. Taeyeon smiled weakly at them, and it kind of hurts Baekhyun to see it.

“I’m fine,”

“Don’t lie,” this time is Baekhyun. Taeyeon glanced at Baekhyun and smiled at him, making the pain on Baekhyun’s chest growing. He doesn’t know why did he feel it, it just suddenly there.

“Nothing big, really,”

“Unnie. You can tell me,” assured Yoona.

“You are a bad liar, Taeyeon. Just tell us,” Sehun keeps looking at her.

She shook her head, insisting that she’s fine. “Just a little problem at home. But I’m fine now. I just…need a time alone for a while. I’ll see you guys later,” she said as she left the group.

Baekhyun stared at her from distance, watching her tiny figure disappears in the crowd and out of his sight. He som